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Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

I should imagine the game is pretty good...I just wish I had sound (it doesn't support 5.1 surround believe it or not - regardless I still have no sound at all), oh and a Vsync that worked would be nice, and better performance (doesn't support SLI for a start). Controls are screwy too. It needs patching, like now.

Works pretty good for me. I wouldn't know for 5.1 sound (a stereo headset is all I need for that kind of game) or SLI support, but what is your problem with the controls? It works as good as in the first Amnesia. It just feels a bit weird only being able to pick up chairs and relevant items (that you automatically know are useful for puzzles...).

Welp. Finished it. The story is cool and all, but it's really nothing more than an horror Dear Esther. No puzzles, just go strait forward and push every buttons you find!

Also, was scared for the first hour. The 5 other hours, not that much. Don't want to spoil, but it is NOT a scary game. It may have a horror setting, but you won't be scared playing it (my biggest disappointment).

Yeah, it's a bit messy. There's a bit more to do than in Dear Esther but the "puzzles" are so simplistic as to be borderline insulting that they're there. When they do ratchet up to "slightly more difficult" they're only really difficult because you're scrabbling around to work out what nonsense object goes in what nonsense slot where before you pull a switch because man, this game loves switches.

It's caught in this really strange halfway house and doesn't really play to the strengths of an installation game and doesn't really play to the strengths of a videogame-y videogame either and yeah, it doesn't quite work all told and there's a fair few serious immersion breakers in there.

It's not scary, really but it can be incredibly tense when it's not being all silly and putting shit enemies in the way. The sound design is quite special, there's some really, really, really good sound work that works the gloom and spookiness well. But I dunno, I still can't work out whether it'd have been better accepting it was just a ghost train and going all out on that and embraced the "wandering through a scary machine" thing or going the full Amnesia videogame but I suspect either would be better than what it is.

It's a very different game compared to Dark Descent, but it's exactly what I hoped for from an Amnesia game from TheChineseRoom. Lot's of exploration and storytelling but lighter on horror elements and puzzles. And I agree with RobF that the sound design is excellent.

I wasn't really impressed. The story was so predictable it was obvious what happened during the first 10 minutes of the game and the atmosphere was very lacking (especially after the sewers, before that there was some really good atmosphere building every now and then). Also, dear lord the amount of notes (and their verbosity) was just way too much. Brevity is the wit of the soul and all that jazz. I expected to get Amnesia with a good story, what with all the hype of Dear Esther generated, but this had really neither. A shame.

I never really mind predictable in a ghost story, often I think half the point of the best ones is that you work out early on what's going to happen but it's the getting there that matters. Like with No. 1 Branch Line you know from pretty much the first line but that's OK.

That said, I thought the ending dragged it out and explained a bit too much. There were a couple of points where I felt the game could have wrapped things up and left things rather uncertain and uncomfortable, either just before or just after the walk through London would have left things hanging nicely. Where by nicely I mean "sort of probably not very nicely", obviously. Yet the game got a bit preoccupied with a few more switches and filling in most of the blanks along the way. I sorta felt like I didn't *need* to know a lot of that stuff and it wasn't really what I was interested in. Apart from the turn of the century stuff. I liked that but I'd have also been just as happy for it to not be there.

And again with the weird enemy inclusion thing. I guess the point of the electro-pig was the machine trying to push you away, hence the spatial fuckery too but it just felt like throwing a videogame thing into a spooky story again.

It's just horror tropes fest.
1) Oh, scary children running around the house cliche.
2) Abusive father (not sure, but all these alcohol bootles aren't just randomly placed here) as main hero cliche.
3) Pig masks/figurines scattered everywhere - "we will remind you of something terrible that you can't remember placing little symbols in almost all rooms" cliche.
4) Doors slamming after you enter the room cliche.
5) "We have no idea how deliver story to you, so just read these fucking notes (that are scattered everywhere)" (videogame) cliche.
6) It's horror, therefore you must find blood and dead bodies (rats in the attic for example) sometimes cliche.
7) Most horrible things in a house always take place in attic (or basement) cliche.
8) Old mansion filled with secret doorways cliche.

It's all from 30 minutes long play, I thought I'm watching crappy modern Hollywood horror.

Yes well I'm sure it is, shame I can't hear any of it. Oh and now it just continuously cashes. I've uninstalled it and asked Steam for a refund. They've refunded me before so I'm hoping they'll agree the game is broken, as it is for many.

Yeah, but they named it "A Machine for Pigs", they don't need to remind me of it by placing little plastic pigs in 1/3 of rooms I visit.
It could work if you wouldn't know that this game theme is related to pigs in any way. And even then - throwing these symbols literally everywhere would also be bad.